It was written: > Guess you've never tried to get out of a short field on a +100 degree day > or tried to climb out of a 5000' MSL field on a warm day. Nope. Bagged it once in Grant, NM, when the POH said not enough runway. Lived to tell this list about it.
> Now as for all the=
> flowery crap about how well balanced the coupe was with 65 hp. The
first=
> coupe flew with an A-40. Now Fred was smart enough to know more HP
would=
> increase the safety margin. So ERCO produced a few 60HP inline engines
(the=
> coupe looked really good with that in line) but didn't prove economical
to=
> produce. The A-65 just happened to be the biggest commercial engine=
> available at the time that would work with the airframe.
The story I read in The Ercoupe, by Thomas, says that ERCO paid a bunch
of money for that inverted inline 4-cyl engine to be designed. Then
Contenintal came out with the C-65 that was much cheaper than ERCO could
produce it! And you thought Microsoft was the only one that played
hard ball... The vestigages of that inline jobbie are visible on any
415C - like mine. That cowl that was slapped on was an obvious fix-up
after the bird was designed around that mill. In fact, even the FAA did
not catch it. That's the real deal around the stainless steel that must
be put over the frount of the plane for bigger motors - the FAA discovered
that that area is really in the engine compartment and needs a firewall!
> 41 Charlie
>
> Dave's Ercoupe Page
>
Percy in Low, Cold Portland
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